SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR

Roy Andersson was born in 1943 in Goteborg, Sweden. In 1969, he graduated from the Swedish Film School, and his first feature, A Swedish Love Story, won four prizes at the Berlin Film Festival in 1970. Giliap, his second film, was presented at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 1976. In 1975, he started a pioneering career as a commercials director, earning a total of eight Golden Lions at Cannes. In 1981, he founded Studio 24 in Stockholm in order to freely produce and make his films. This is also where he developed his unique filmmaking style. After Something Happened (1987) and World of Glory (1991), two shorts that earned the most prestigious awards (Clermont-Ferrand, among others), he shot Songs from the Second Floor and won the Special Jury Prize at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. As the first chapter in The Living Trilogy, Songs from the Second Floor was followed in 2007 by You, the Living, which also screened at Cannes. The films cemented his personal style characterized by stationary shots and meticulously conceived tableaux, absurdist comedy as well and an essential humanity. In 2009, Roy Andersson was distinguished by an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, presenting not only his film oeuvre, but also several of his commercials. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, his fifth feature film, is the final chapter in the The Living Trilogy, which has been 15 years in the making.